Cellular Towers Face Restrictions

Lauderdale Proposal Includes Height Limit, Spacing Guidelines

March 3, 1997|By ROBIN BENEDICK Staff Writer

FORT LAUDERDALE - — City commissioners, fearing a proliferation of cellular phone towers, will regulate where the spindly towers and rooftop antennas can go to minimize their intrusion on neighborhoods.

Other cities in Broward and Palm Beach counties have adopted or are considering similar restrictions to keep up with the demand for wireless communications.

Cities can't prohibit the towers under the federal Telecommunications Law passed last year, but they can regulate them - within reason.

Fort Lauderdale city commissioners will hear an update on the proposed guidelines on Tuesday, but they aren't scheduled to vote on them until May. The Planning and Zoning Board passed the telecommunications ordinance last month after several revisions.

Industry representatives have been working to loosen Fort Lauderdale's rules. They have been working with city staffers and a Minneapolis-based law firm hired by the city to develop the rules. Among their complaints are the distances towers must be from residential areas and from each other.

Fort Lauderdale's proposed law would limit tower height to 150 feet, though companies could ask permission to go higher. Towers would be prohibited from being built within 200 feet of a neighborhood, or at a distance equal to 200 percent of the tower's height, whichever is greater. That means a 150-foot tower could not be built within 300 feet of a residential area, said Bruce Larkin, the city's director of administrative services.

"We're trying to protect our neighborhoods while at the same time not prevent the industry from deploying their systems," Larkin said. "All we're trying to do is strike a balance."

The ordinance also requires towers to be at least 750 feet from each other, though several companies can share one tower.

He said companies are moving ahead with tower proposals under the proposed ordinance. Companies are rushing to put up more towers to ease overloaded cell-phone systems.

Telecommunications equipment would be permitted at community centers, such as fire stations, and in industrial areas. They would not be allowed atop condominium towers in residential areas, officials said.

Unlike some cities, Fort Lauderdale wants to require companies to overbuild towers with extra capacity so that competitors could share space on one tower. That would cut down on the number of towers, officials said. Also, towers and antennas in some locations would have to be camouflaged to blend with their surroundings.

Fort Lauderdale is paying Fredrikson & Byron, of Minneapolis, about $100,000 for the telecommunications ordinance and another one dealing with burying the equipment underground in public rights-of-way.